What happened to Jessie Blodgett? Musician's death revisited in Dateline: Secrets Uncovered 

The latest episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered revisited the intriguing murder mystery of Jessie Blodgett, a young musician who was brutally raped and murdered by her admirer and ex-classmate Daniel Bartelt.

The official synopsis of the Dateline episode, which aired on June 22, reads:

"Jessie Blodgett was a budding musician and actress; the morning after a performance, Jessie's mother found her dead."

In the episode, investigators from Blodgett's case offered some inside details regarding the investigation, which included updates on Daniel Bartelt, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

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Jessie Blodgett died of strangulation

In July 2013, the local police received a frantic 911 call from Joy Blodgett, Jessie's mother, who told operators that she had found her daughter unresponsive in bed. When police arrived at the victim's home on Wayside Drive, they found the body of 19-year-old Jessie Blodgett on the bedroom floor, where her mother had placed her to perform CPR. Investigators discovered that her body had been washed.

Jessie was a member of a youth theater community in Hartford, Wisconsin. In July 2013, she had just finished a premiere production of Fiddler on the Roof and went to a friend’s home to celebrate.

The next day, around noon, Jessie's mother found her dead in her bed. Jessie's mother told the police that she had seen her asleep in bed before she left for work that morning. When she returned home during lunch to check on her daughter, Joy found her dead in bed with marks on her neck. Jessie was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy determined that she had died of strangulation.

Jessie’s dad, Buck, told Oxygen's Murdered by Morning:

"Jessie was raped and strangled with a ligature. It was only the community’s third murder in more than 100 years."

On July 12, Bartelt, Jessie's former schoolmate and one of her admirers, allegedly went after a woman in the park with a knife and attempted to attack her until she was able to disarm him. He would later reportedly tell police that he was trying to scare the woman.

The woman who was attacked had offered a description of her attacker and his vehicle, which pointed to Bartelt. During his interrogation, Daniel made statements about Blodgett’s death that made the police suspicious, according to Murdered by Morning.

Investigators uncovered a cereal box stuffed full of ropes that had been used in the murder of Jessie; they also found bloody sanitizing wipes and tape. Authorities would later confirm that both Bartelt and Jessie’s DNA was on the ropes. They also found an incriminating search history on his laptop that showed a porn video that featured a similar plot to the murder.

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Where is Daniel Bartelt now?

Initially pleading not guilty, he reasoned with Jessie Blodgett's family by saying:

"Buck, Joy -- I can't give you the reasons you are looking for. There's no hiding from yourself in a tiny, concrete cell. This jumpsuit that I'm wearing, these shackles don't make me guilty. I know there's evidence that I can't refute that would make you believe that I am guilty."

He faced four felony charges in the case. One of the charges was related to the first-degree intentional homicide, two were associated with the civilian he'd attacked at Richfield Park on July 12, 2013, and the fourth charge concerned false imprisonment.

Bartelt was found guilty by a Washington County judge on October 14, 2013, and was sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole by the court.